A Cuban resident in Guanajay, a municipality in the province of Artemisa, reported in a video shared on Facebook that state inspectors imposed fines exceeding 10,000 pesos for selling his products at a lower price than the local market.
The man recounts that the previous month he had already been imposed a first penalty of 5,000 pesos for the same reason. "Last month, for this very thing, with a low price in town, selling below the price that it goes for in the village, they hit me with another fine of five thousand pesos," he reports, clearly indignant.
Just 15 days later, a second inspector arrived to impose another fine of 5,000 pesos for the same reason. "Fifteen days later, another one came to hit me with another 5,000 pesos fine. Where is this going to end? Someone has to stop this. I don't know who can stop this," he exclaims in the video.
What makes this case noteworthy is that the infraction was not selling at a high price — which is what the Cuban regime usually pursues — but rather selling at a low price, highlighting the arbitrariness with which price control regulations are enforced on the island.
In the same video, other voices can be heard also receiving fines of 1,000 pesos, suggesting a broader inspection operation in the area. "It's a lack of respect, man," is heard from the complainant.
The case fits into a national pattern that has intensified since 2025. In December 2024, Prime Minister Manuel Marrero announced that starting in January 2025, inspectors would be paid "based on their results," meaning their salary would depend on the number and amount of fines imposed, with base salaries ranging from 5,810 to 7,830 pesos per month.
That perverse incentive has led to reports of arbitrary fines even when no real infringement exists. A report from April 2026 revealed that inspectors admitted to fining businesses without any violation because "they are required to deliver results."
The legal framework that supports these sanctions is Decree 30/2021, which regulates offenses due to violations of pricing policy, imposing fines ranging from 2,500 to 15,000 pesos. Decree-Law 91/2024 further tightened the penalties for self-employed workers, cooperatives, and small and medium-sized enterprises, with fines that can reach up to 72,000 pesos.
Similar cases have multiplied in recent months. A seller of pozuelos in Centro Habana was fined 46,000 pesos in a single day in April 2026. An 81-year-old man in Holguín received a fine of 21,000 pesos for selling matchboxes without a license, despite having requested the permit over a year prior without receiving a response. In Granma, in November 2025, fines of up to 72,000 pesos were imposed on sellers of cut chicken.
In 2024, according to official figures, there were 606,303 inspections resulting in 371,333 fines amounting to over 980 million pesos nationwide. Only in the third week of February 2026, 17,000 fines were recorded totaling 65 million pesos at a national level.
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